There is a higher guiding hand that moves behind the increasingly tense US presidential election, and it is not - as commonly said - Bill Clinton. It is the hand of God.

In a country that traditionally, and constitutionally, drives a wedge between the affairs of Church and State, never before have politics and religion been so closely entwined as in this campaign. Both candidates, and their running mates, insist that God is on their side; the Almighty is claimed by the Left, Right and Centre.

George W. Bush found himself preaching to a humble, fundamentalist Christian Fellowship meeting in Kansas (where Adam and Eve, rather than Darwin, are taught in science classes) with a mixed message: Praise the Lord and lower taxes.

But foremost in this sudden invocation of faith is Al Gore's nomination for Vice-President, Joe Lieberman, who last week broke all the banks separating faith and politics with defiant speeches on 'the need to reaffirm our faith, and renew the dedication of our nation and ourselves to God'.

Even as Lieberman made his speech, massive 'pray-in' demonstrations of college students were taking place all across the South in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling that bans formal prayers at sporting events - tens of thousands of students gathering to recite the Lord's Prayer at high volume. Ironically, Jews in Mississippi refused to participate and protested.

The result of Lieberman's speeches has been not to unite the faithful - in a country where 86 per cent believe in God. Quite the reverse: the Jewish community is riven by the stance taken by the first of their faith to feature on a presidential ticket, while Christians fragment.

God had been a main stream issue in the election before Lieberman's selection. Anxious to court the Christian Right, Bush had spoken much about how his 'heart belonged to Jesus', and when asked who his favourite philosopher was answered simply: 'Jesus Christ.' After his many dalliances with new-age nonsense, Gore - who was born a Southern Baptist - declared to one audience that he was 'a child of the Kingdom and a person of strong faith'.

And Gore's selection of Lieberman, an observant Jew, as running mate was widely welcomed as a wholesome breeze through a putrid polity, and an injection of morality into the shaming of the presidency by Bill and Monica. It was hoped he would demystify Orthodox Judaism in America, and bring the faith to its place in the mainstream it more than deserved.

With Gore now surging from behind to lead Bush, running-mate Lieberman kicked off the week with one of the strongest drives to infuse American politics with religious faith. The first blast of the trumpet was from a Christian pulpit in Detroit, invoking the Ten Commandments and the 'inspiration of Jesus of Nazareth'.

But the speech only highlighted deep reservations among Jews about both his candidacy and what he was doing with it.

The Anti-Defamation League, with impeccable credentials in the struggle against anti-Semitism, had already lambasted Bush and Gore for scriptural politics, and now unleashed its strongest criticism so far against Lieberman, accusing him of 'hawking' his faith. 'We do not think that religion belongs in the political arena,' said ADL director Abraham Foxman.

Lieberman, for his part, says he is claiming God for the Left - against the traditions of ideology in America. 'I respect the ADL,' he said, 'but I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.'

In California, he spoke again about the inseparability of faith and public life, and even said: 'Isn't Medicare coverage of prescription drugs really about the values of the Fifth Commandment, Honour Your Mother and Father?' Lieberman's aides are quick to draw distinctions between his comments and efforts by Christian conservatives to mingle religion and politics, noting that Lieberman supports abortion rights and opposes organised prayer in schools.

The reaction of the enemy camp was simple. Bush headed straight for a fundamentalist fellowship in Kansas to declare that 'our nation is chosen by God'.

Meanwhile, Lieberman interprets the Constitution in his own way, insisting the First Amendment guaranteed 'freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion'.

The interpretation draws fire from the 'fundamentalist liberals' who hold to the origins of the revolution, the People for the American Way group. 'The government has to be neutral with regard to religion,' says director Ralph Neas, 'whether between one religion and another, or whether it's between the religious and the non-religious.'

The American Civil Liberties Union invoked the ghost of John F. Kennedy, who pledged that, as a Catholic, he would take no order from the Vatican. 'If John F. Kennedy had said the sort of thing Lieberman is saying,' says the ACLU's Ira Glasser, 'he never would have been elected President. People would have been terrified.'

Even the organised Christian community is not sure about Lieberman's stance. The Rev Barry Lynn, director of Americans for the Separation of Church and State, says: 'Lieberman's ability to understand the scriptures may be appropriate in Iran, but it ain't appropriate here.'

But the backroom team in the Gore camp remains solidly behind the injection of religiosity into the campaign. 'Why should religion and morality belong to the Right?', asked one.